Sunshine Revival Challenges 1 and 2

Jul. 5th, 2025 06:27 pm
independence1776: Stitch escaping from chain link dog kennel (Stitch free; interesting!)
[personal profile] independence1776
Challenge #1: Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.

My primary goal for July is to finish the first draft of my Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang fic. I would like to but do not expect to finish it before the Mereth Aderthad.

*

Challenge #2:
Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.
Creative: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like.


Right now, the summer-related thing I want to do the most is to sit on the lakeshore at the cabin and read a book for hours on end. I was able to do that last summer and I really miss not being able to do so this summer. Right on the shore, the lake breezes kept the mosquitos and flies away; even ten feet inland this didn't happen. The lapping of the waves, the sky, the ever-changing clouds (when there are clouds), the birdsong and insects buzzing in the forest: I need this.


And now for the poem:


Natural fireworks:
lightning storms,
lightning bugs.
Fireflies are preferable--
they're less dangerous.
But I love both.

Fireflies I can hold in my hand:
light on, light off
-- and then they're off
back into the wider world.
just_ann_now: (Reading: Weekends are for reading)
[personal profile] just_ann_now
Two heat waves, and two sets of storms to break them. Pleasant this morning and a sunny and warm weekend predicted (so I can cut my grass.)

What I've Just Finished Reading

An interesting reading week! A selection (but not everything):

A Garden's Purpose: Cultivating Our Connection with the Natural World, by Felix de Rosen. A very pleasant read inside in the AC when it's too outside hot to garden. Not a garden how-to but a garden think-about, with lots of really nice photos.

Bad Badger: A Love Story, by Maryrose Wood, illustrated by Guila Ghigini. Charming middle-grade novel; if the illustrations has been in color it would have been breathtaking. For Monthly Keyword: Story.

The Last Murder at the End of the World, by Stuart Turton. Whhhhhhhaaaaaaat was this even. Postapocalyptic, twisty, confusing. I had The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by the same author,on my To-Read list, based on [personal profile] rachelmanija's review (Summary: "It was weird"), but now, nope. It wasn't horrible, just too - something, and I don't quite know what. For a Goodreads "Poolside Puzzlers" challenge.

On the other hand, Arboreality, by Rebecca Campbell, climate-change distopia, but also hopeful and lovely. Interrelated stories joined to novella-length, lovely characterization.

Saving the best for last: Orbital, by Samantha Harvey. Not a plotty book - 24 hours in the lives of an international group of astronauts on the ISS. Gorgous prose, introspective characters, passing mention of things happening outside their metal cocoon. [A spoiler, but a worthwhile one, so no apologies: NO horrible crisis pops in from nowhere, so you don't have to be on tenterhooks, as I was.] Very short, barely 200 pages, won the Booker Prize last year, which usuallly makes me go "Uh-oh, this will be too thinky for me", but what I think is that I'll buy my own copy for when I need soothing. For Monthly Motif: Single Day Story.

What I Am Currently Reading

Just this morning started The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V.E. Schwab, also for a Goodreads challenge.

What I Am Reading Next

I'm planning my holiday weekend around Somewhere Beyond the Sea, by T.J. Klune!

Question of the Day: I don't have one. Do you?
just_ann_now: (Reading: Weekends are for reading)
[personal profile] just_ann_now
Hot hot HOT so good for staying inside reading. (See also: February, Cold cold COLD, good for staying in reading). Gardening, walking, yoga, all happening early in the day; housework, food organizing and preparing, etc, interspersed with reading time.)


What I Just Finished Reading

real ones, by Katherena Vermette. An engrossing read, most of the emphasis was on emotional abuse of children by a narcissistic parent, also topical re: "pretendinans" who fake an Indigenous background. I remember being shocked a few years back by the revelation that Buffy Sainte-Marie was actually Italian-American, from Massachusetts, and I didn't even have a dog in that fight. For Read Broader-Indigenous Author.

Bee Speaker, by Adrian Tchikovsky. If there is a bad AT book, I haven't read it yet, though there are some I love more than others. This was an enjoyable completion to the Dogs of War trilogy, again with that intriguing mix of scifi and epic fantasy elements. Not for any challenge other than maybe the "Keep with AT!" one I should invent for myself *grin*

Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood, by Rose George. This was really fascinating, selected on a whim for A to Z Titles. I'm glad I read it.

Jazz, by Toni Morrison, also picked up on a whim for A to Z Titles, dreamlike prose, nonlinear storytelling.

When I'm Gone, Look for Me in the East, by Quan Barry. A reread for Read Broader: AAPI Author. I bought this one right away after reading it from the library. Unique plot and setting, memorable characters, very transporting.

Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization, by Kenneth Harl. I read this immediately after the Quan Barry book because I was curious as to why Tibetan Buddhism has such a strong influence in Mongolia. I did not really get any answers from this book, all names and dates and battles. (Note to self: look for more contemporary information about Mongolia.)

Aunty Lee's Delights, by Ovidia Yu. I needed something light and fairly frothy after Empires of the Steppes, and this filled that requirement easily.

The Six: The Extraordinary Story of the Grit and Daring of America's First Women Astronauts, by Loren Grush. For A to Z Titles. [personal profile] cairistiona, I think this would be right up your alley!

What I Am Currently Reading

Zero at the Bone, by Mary Willis Walker. NOT a cozy mystery but an engrossing one, with an unusual main setting. There are some bits that make me go "Whaaaaa?", so it probably could have used a bit more editing, but I'm enjoying it. A to Z Authors.

What I Am Reading Next

I have two more books to finish up Read Broader, and they are both on my Kindle, so I don't even have to venture to the library. And oh, look, here comes July, and two more monthly challenges! So I'm all set.

Question of the Day (Jeopardy version): Mine was 101.8, late yesterday afternoon. Yours?

(no subject)

Jun. 24th, 2025 08:05 pm
marta_bee: (Default)
[personal profile] marta_bee
Just checking in. I'm still here and hanging in there. I do hope you're all doing well!

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